China’s Communist Party on track for 100 million members by year’s end
- Data shows membership is becoming more educated, while fall in younger membership slows and women, ethnic minority groups sign up in greater numbers
In line with tradition, the data was released a day ahead of the July 1 celebrations to honour the party’s founding in 1921.
The Central Organisation Department – the party’s top personnel office – reported a net increase of 1.14 million members, a 1.2 per cent growth, compared with the end of 2022 when party membership rose by 1.4 per cent, increasing by 1.32 million.
Xi stressed that “comprehensive and strict governance over the party” must be upheld, to push forward party-building in the new era, and its organisation needs to be effective, insisting on a centralised and united leadership.
Grass roots party organisations also need to be reformed, to increase the party’s local governance ability, he said. Internet and information technologies should be applied to party-building, to achieve full coverage of the organisation, online and offline.
A closer look at the tally shows that the number of members aged under 30 dropped to 12.41 million – a 0.18 per cent decrease of 23,000 on 2022. The drop was much slower than the previous year, when young membership fell by 1.5 per cent, or 189,000 from 2021.